Chloe Jackson: Daughter of the Sea God
by bookreader1617
Summary: Chloe Jackson is the twin sister of Percy Jackson. The Fates have big plans for her. She has her mother's brains and her father's powers. She quickly learns to never think that something is impossible. When you're a child of the one of the Big Three anything and every is possible.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone!**

**Yes this is another Percy has a twin sister fanfiction, but I promise it is different then the others! Please give it a try!**

**I do not own the Percy Jackson series, it's characters, or the world it is set in.**

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Being a demigod sucks.

It's dangerous, scary, and will get you kill in the most imaginable ways.

If you aren't a demigod, be thankful. That's all I got to say.

If you think you are one, listen to whatever lie your mom or dad has told you. Try as hard as you can to live a normal life. Once you find out the truth, it's like a countdown has started on when you die.

My name is Chloe Jackson and my countdown has started.

I'm twelve years old. My twin brother name is Percy Jackson. Until a few months ago, we went to a privet boarding school, Yancy Academy for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Are we troubled kids?

Well, we sure are not angles.

This is our sixth school in six years. Each school has kicked us out for one reason or another. I could start at any point in my twelve years of life to prove to why we were never welcome back to those schools but things really started last May when our sixth-grade class was going on a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan. Whoever idea it was to have only two teacher to go with twenty-eight mental-case kids was an idiot. That's just asking for trouble. Something I was trying very hard to stay out of.

Most Yancy field trips suck and are pure torture but I had high hopes on this one because we were going to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff, which I find really cool, and Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was in charge on this trip.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy with a scruffy beard in a motorized wheelchair whose always smells like coffee. But don't assume that just because he is in a wheelchair that has slowed him down or that he is one of those no-messing around boring teachers. Oh no. He loves to tell us stories and jokes and let us play games in class. His class is the only one that doesn't put Percy and me asleep and the only one we actually try to do good in.

So for once I was excited for this trip and hoped that nothing would get Percy and me in trouble.

I couldn't be more wrong.

Bad things always end up happening when Percy and I go on school trips. Last year Percy somehow fired a Revolutionary War cannon when we visited the Saratoga battlefield. He says he wasn't aiming for the school bus but we got expelled anyways. I had nothing to do with it but since I was in Percy group I got in trouble along with him.

The year before that, in fourth-grade, our school at the time went to Marine World on a behind-the-scenes tour; our class took an unplanned swim in the shark pool when I accidently hit the wrong lever on the catwalk. Needless to say we weren't welcome back to that school either.

We both are determined for this trip to go well.

All the way up to the city, I sat in across from Percy and Grover, Percy best-friend, with my best friend Katherine trying not to jump across the seats and killing Nancy Bobofit. For the whole ride Nancy has been throwing chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich at the back of Grover's head.

Grover was an easy target because he was scrawny guy who cried when he got frustrated. I also think he was held back several times because he was the only sixth grader with acne and starting to grow a beard on his chin. It doesn't help that he is crippled.

He had some kind of muscular diseased in his legs that causes him to walk funny as if every step hurt him, so he has a note that excuses him from PE. But that doesn't slow him down when it's enchilada day in the cafeteria.

Anyway, Nancy knew that Percy and I can't do anything about her throwing the food at Grover because we were on probation. The headmaster threatened Percy and me with in-school suspension if we do anything other than breathing on this trip.

"I'm going to kill her," Percy mumbled.

"I'll help," I mumbled also.

"It's okay. I like peanut butter." Grover said trying to calm Percy and me down.

Grover dodged another piece of Nancy sand which. I turned around and thought of how Nancy with a black would look.

"That's it." I started to get up out of my seat to give Nancy said black eye, but Katherine pulled me down in the seat.

"Don't do anything stupid Chloe." Katherine told me "You're already on probation."

"Yea well, in-school suspension would be so worth it right now if I can just get one good swing in!" I growled under my breath as I crackled my knuckles.

"Chloe," Grover said in a warning tone. I sighed and stayed in my seat. When I think back on that moment I wish I'd punched Nancy right in that moment. Compared to the mess Percy and I was about to get into is nothing compared to in-school suspension.

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour. Riding up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through huge galleries filled with marbled statues and glass cases full of ancient black-and-orange pottery. How these things have survived after all this time is mind blowing.

I tried to listen to what Mr. Brunner was saying about the thirteen-foot-tall stone column that he has gather us around but couldn't because no one would shut up. When Percy and I told them to be quite Mrs. Dodds, the other teacher chaperone, would glare at us with nothing but hate in her eyes.

Mrs. Dodds was this little old lady math teacher from Georgia. She always wears a leather jacket, which made her look as if she was in a biker gang. She had come to Yancy halfway through the school year after our last math teacher has a nervous breakdown. That tends to happen a lot at this school, unless you're one of those don't mess around teachers, which our last one was not.

From the first time she laid eyes on Percy and me she thought we were the devil children and Nancy was an angle. Whenever she says, "Now honey," surgery sweet, we know by now that means after-school detention for a month.

One time she made Percy erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight. Later in a joking way, I told Grover that I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked me in the eye with the most serious expression I've ever seen on him, and said, "You're absolutely right."

At that moment I thought he was playing along with the joke but now I realized I should have token him more serious.

Mr. Brunner kept taking about Greek funeral art ignoring what the other students were doing.

It wasn't until Nancy snicker something about the naked guy on the stele, which caused Percy to finally turned around and shouted, "Will you _shut up_?" It had come out louder than he probably meant too.

The rest of the group laughed. I rolled my eyes.

Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

Percy face got red. He said, "No sir."

Mr. Brunner not done with Percy just yet, pointed to the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

"That's Kronos eating his kids, right?" Percy said after a moment of looking at it.

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he _did_ this because…"

"Well…" Percy paused for a second. "Kronos was the king god, and—"

"Titan," I corrected him.

"Right, Titan," Percy corrected, "and… he didn't trust his kids who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters—"

"Ewww!" One girl behind us said.

G_ross indeed_, I thought.

"—and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," He continued, "and the gods won."

Some of the group snickered.

Why anyone would find that funny is beyond me.

Behind me, Nancy mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos at his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Mr. Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed bright red.

Percy shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner said disappointedly, "How about you Miss. Jackson?"

I thought about it and said, "Well… um… since Ancient Greece has influence civilizations all over the world, even our modern ones has influences that can be traced back to that time, I guess it is important to study their civilization, and since Greek god and goddess, and titans too I guess, were part of that culture we have to learn about it also."

"Not the answer I was expecting but still an expectable one." Mr. Brunner nodded in approval. "Half credit to both of you Miss Jackson and Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifted off, most girls trying not to puke over the fact Kronos at his kids, the guys pushing each other acting like the doofuses they are.

Grover, Percy, and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Miss Jackson, Mr. Jackson."

Percy and I shared a look. We knew what was coming.

"You keep going Grover. We'll meet up outside." I told him. He nodded and left.

We turned to Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" Percy asked.

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go— intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything. That makes it even worse when he is disappointed in you.

"You must learn the answer to the my question, " Mr. Brunner told us.

"About the Titans?" I asked confused.

"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."

"Oh."

"Your answer was good Miss Jackson, but as I said: it wasn't what I was looking for. Greek culture has influence our modern world but you need to learn how Greek mythology does also," He said, "What you learn from me is vitally important. I expect you to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from both of you, Chloe and Percy Jackson."

I wanted to angry.

Mr. Brunner pushes us harder than anyone else. He expects us to be not be _good_ but _better_ than everyone else. It's like he expects us to suddenly not have dyslexia and our attention deficit disorder to suddenly disappear. We have never made anything above a C- in our life. There is no way for us to learn ever Greek and Roman person, their mother, and what god they worshiped. It's impossible.

Percy and I mumbled something about trying harder, while Mr. Brunner took one long look at the stele. He was so sad, as if he has just been at someone's funeral.

He told us to go outside and eat lunch.

Our class had gathered on the front steps of the museum. A storm was brewing over head, with clouds darker than I ever seen before in New York. They were the kind of clouds you hear about in the Midwest when they think a tornado is coming. Unexplainable weather has been happening ever since Christmas; Massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes from server thunderstorms. I wouldn't be surprised if this storm really does produce a tornado.

No one seems the notice so I didn't think anything of it. Some guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchable crackers. Nancy was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

Sighing I sat down next to Katherine on the edge of the fountain, away from the main group. Percy and Grover joined us. Hopeful this way everyone would think we weren't part of _that_ school—that school for troublemakers who can't in anywhere else.

"What did Brunner want?" Katherine asked.

"Oh you know the normal." I said taking one of her twizzles "_'You must do better Chloe. I won't expect anything but the best from you.'_"

"I just wish he would lay off sometimes." Percy added. "I mean—we are not geniues."

Katherine stayed quite, having heard the same rant many times before. Grover was also quite for a while until he said, "Can I have your apple Percy?"

Percy gave him the apple.

The four of us sat there in silence watching the cabs drive by. I was tempted to take one of the cabs and go home to my mom's apartment. It wasn't even far from where we sat. The only thing stopping me is I could see the disappointment in her eyes already. Don't get me wrong, she would hug me and be happy to see me but she would be disappointed in me also. I couldn't stand seeing the sad, disappointment look.

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.

I had just to finish my ham sandwich when Nancy walked up and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray-painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

I was stood up, about to punch Nancy all the way into next week when something beyond my imagination happen.

The water from the fountain appeared to come to life, formed a hand, and grabbed Nancy pulling her into the fountain.

That should have been my first clue.

I just stared speechless. Standing next to me Percy appeared to be confused about why Nancy was in the water. Did Percy have anything to do with what happen to the water?

"Percy and Chloe pushed me!" Nancy screamed sitting in the water.

Mrs. Dodds honed in on us like a missile.

Some of the other student started whispering, but I didn't care. Something wasn't right. There is no way the water could do what it did. So how did it?

After making sure poor Nancy was alright and promising to get a new shirt from the gift shop, Mrs. Dodds turned to Percy and I. She had a look of triumphant in her eyes, as if she has been waiting for this moment for a long time. "Now, honey—"

"I know," Percy grumbled, "A month erasing workbooks."

Wrong thing to say.

"Both of you, come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover shouted. "It was me. _I_ pushed her."

Grover looked panic stricken, as if the thought of Mrs. Dodds giving us detention terrified him. Well Mrs. Dodds does terrify him, but a gut feeling told me it was for some other reason. Percy looked at Grover in shock also, but I think it was more for the reason Grover was trying to cover for us.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," Mrs. Dodds said glaring at him so hard he started to tremble.

"But—"

"You—_will _—stay—here."

Grover looked at us pleading for us to help or not to follow. Before I could figure out which Percy told him, "It's okay man. Thanks for trying."

"Honey," Mrs. Dodds barked at us. "Now."

Nancy smirked.

Percy and I both gave her our deluxe I'm-going-to-kill-you-later glare.

Then I turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at us to come on.

How'd she get there so fast?

I glanced at Percy, he seemed to be thinking the same thing. It was probably our ADHD misinterpreting stuff. He just shrugged. I sighed and we walked up the many steps to where Mrs. Dodds was waiting impatiently.

Halfway up Percy stopped walking. I turned and saw him looking back at Grover. He was looking pale, his eyes darting between us and Mr. Brunner like he expected Mr. Brunner to intervene, but Mr. Brunner was too absorbed in the novel to notice what was going on.

Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again by the time we were walking back up the steps. She was now inside the building. At first I thought she was going to make us buy Nancy a new shirt from the gift shop but when she started walking further into the museum a warning bell in my head went off.

I glanced at Percy but he seemed confused but not worried.

We stopped in the Greek and Roman section.

Besides the three of us, the gallery was empty.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making weird, unnatural noises in her throat, which sort sounded like growling. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...

"You've been giving us problems, honey," she said.

Percy thankfully said the safe thing, "Yes, ma'am."

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you really think you would get away with it?"

The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.

_She's a teacher_, I thought nervously. _She can't hurt us_.

Percy nervously said something about trying harder. I nodded in agreement not trusting my voice. This whole situation was so weird and nerve-racking. Being alone with a teacher is one thing, but with Mrs. Dodds takes that nervousness to a whole different level.

Thunder shook the building.

I flinched. I hate thunderstorms.

"We are not fools, Percy and Chloe Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

Wait, what?

Confess about what? What does she mean by suffer less pain? Is she really going to hurt us?

Percy and I shared a confused look.

"Ma'am, I don't understand…" I said.

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then the second weirdest thing happened.

Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. Grover was right. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice us to ribbons.

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at me.

I screamed and dodged her talons. Percy yelled, "Hey ugly!" Mrs. Dodds turned her attention to Percy. My eyes widen seeing that the pen Mr. Brunner had tossed just a second ago was no longer a pen but a sword—the bronze sword that Mr. Brunner used on tournament day.

Mrs. Dodds snarled, "Die, honey!"

"PERCY!" I screamed. Pure terror flooded through me. Never before has Percy handled a sword before, how could he use one now? I watched frozen in fear as Percy swung the sword. The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. _Hisss_!

Mrs. Dodds exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air.

"Chloe!" Percy yelled running to my side. "Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"

"I'm fine," I tried to reassure him but my voice was shaky. "Percy, what is happening? First the fountain, now this! Something is right! Something unnatural is going on!" I could hear the hysterical in my voice.

"I don't know what is going on." He said wrapping me in a hug, "I really don't but I promise I won't let you get hurt."

I nodded barring my face in his shoulder. We stat like that in silence for a few moments before Percy pulled us up off the floor.

"Come on, let's go back outside," he said walking us out the gallery.

When we had gotten back outside, it had started to rain, which was no surprised with the way the weather has been acting.

Grover was sitting by the fountain with a museum map held over his head. Katherine wasn't there; she was huddled under an umbrella that one of the other girls had brought. Nancy, soaked from her swim, was still standing by the fountain complaining to her friends. When she saw us, she snarled, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butt."

"Who?" Percy and I asked.

"Our _teacher_. Duh."

I blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. Percy asked what Nancy was talking about. She just rolled her eyes and walked off.

I asked Grover the same thing.

He said, "Who?"

But his answer was hesitant and wouldn't look at me so I knew he was either lying or messing with us.

"Not funny man," Percy told him, "This is serious."

Thunder boomed overhead causing me to flinch again. I glanced nervously at the dark clouds.

I guess I should explain why I hate thunderstorms. For as long as I could remember I have always felt like the lighting will strike me next. All the other students tease me because of it but my mom always understood my fear, like she knew why I have this fear of lighting.

When I was really little she had given me this soft blank that had a horse on it and told me whenever there was a storm and I was scared, if I wrap myself in the blanket the storm couldn't hurt me. It's silly I know, but to a 5 year old it worked. That blanket got thrown out several years ago, but at times like this, I wish I was still that 5 year old who believed a blanket could protect you from anything.

When I noticed Percy wasn't with us anymore I was worried Mrs. Dodds had showed up and taken him. I calmed down when I saw he was just talking to Mr. Brunner. I walked closer hopping to hear what was saying.

All I caught was Mr. Brunner saying. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?" Mr. Brunner saw me. "Chloe are you alright? You look pale."

"I hate thunderstorms, sir," I said standing next Percy.

Mr. Brunner nodded in an understanding way, "Yes the weather has been violent lately. Hopefully the storm will pass quickly. We should be heading back to the school soon."

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**Thanks for reading! Hope you like it!**

**Please review! It makes me very happy and lets me know that you guys have actually read it! :) **

**Have a great day!**

**Edited (10/17/13): Thank you for everyone reviews but stop telling me to fix the whole "copy every single line in Lightning Thief" thing. I get it. No one likes it. I saw my mistakes and fixed them in later chapters. But please understand I will not be going back and rewriting these first few chapters, so stop telling me to.**

**The reason the first few chapters are extremely similar to what the actual books are is because at this point Chloe and Percy live parallel lives. They are twins so their lives will be the same at this point. But in later chapters like starting chapter 5 or 6 Chloe path in life is different then Percy so it wont be always parallel to Lighting Thief, only for these first few chaps.**

**So PLEASE stick with it and don't just assume it will always be like this first chapter I swear to you it wont!**

**_Read several chapters before you judge a story._**

**I love constructive criticism but review on the first chapter, when there are like 8 others after it, to fix this because you dislike the whole copying this._ I GET IT! YOUR NOT THE ONLY ONE TO POINT IT OUT! I FIXED IT IN LATER CHAPTERS! SO READ THOSE CHAPTERS FIRST THEN REVIEW ABOUT HOW YOU FEEL THE STORY IS!_**

**Sorry about my rant. I just need to explain to some, and maybe future readers, what the situation is. ****I just hate seeing someone (who is signed into Guest) telling me to fix this or that on this first few chaps. I can't message to those Guests, or anyone future readers, this info so I posted it here. I was going to put it in the next chapter update but then realize all those review are on the first chapter so it would be best to put this note there.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A huge thanks to all the people who have favorite/followed/reviewed this story! I was so happy to open my email and see all those alerts! :D**

**Like always I don't own anything that has to do with the Percy Jackson series!**

Something was seriously wrong. Something _huge had_ happen at the museum.

I just couldn't figure out what that something was!

All I knew was: The water came to life and Mrs. Dodds was a monster.

To top it off, the entire campus were completely convinced that Mrs. Kerr—a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip—had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas. Percy and I were the only ones who knew different.

Every so often Percy or I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if it could trip them up, but they would stare at us like we were psycho.

I started to feel like it.

You would too if you were in my place.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room, which scared me just as much as Mrs. Dodds did. That storm had also blown out the windows in a few other dorm rooms, including Percy's. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from low C's and D's to F's. Percy and I both got in more fights with Nancy and her friends. We got sent out in the hallway in almost every class.

The headmaster sent my mom a letter the following week, making it official: We would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

I didn't care.

I was homesick.

I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods outside my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Katherine, who has been the closest thing to a best friend I have ever had. She has been such a great friend and makes me feel bad for not trying harder to stay here next year.

I'd miss Latin class, too—Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for.

I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told Percy and I about this subject being life-and-death for us. I'd started to believe him.

One evening Katherine and I were spread across our beds and she was quizzing me on Greek Mythology. She would name someone or something and I had to say facts about it. It was a very effective way to study with how bad my dyslexic is.

"Chiron," Katherine said.

"Um… He is the centaur." I told her thinking about what stood about him. "and… um… he was really intelligent and more civilized then the other centaur."

"What else made him special," Katherine pushed.

"Didn't he train many students who later went on and did great things?"

"Yea close enough. Let's see…. Furies."

"Um… There are three of them and… um… they work for Hades…"

"What do they look like?"

"Um… I don't know."

Katherine open _Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology _and turned a few pages before handing the book. "There, that's what they supposedly looks like," she said pointing to a picture on the bottom right hand corner. The picture had three women with black skin, bat wings, claws, a mouth full of yellow fangs and glowing eyes.

Mrs. Dodds, I thought.

Katherine was saying some stuff but I wasn't listing.

So that is what Mrs. Dodds was. But that can't be! This stuff is just myths, they aren't real. In the back of my mind I heard Mr. Brunner voice saying, "_Greek culture has influence our modern world but you need to learn how Greek mythology does also… its vitally important._"

Does this mean all this, Greek Mythology, is real? Is that what Mr. Brunner was trying to tell us?

Imagines of the tall man in a trench coat and hat, who followed Percy and I around the playground when we were really little, flashed in my mind. No one had believed us when we said that man had one eye. One eye—Cyclops. If Mrs. Dodds really was a furies then that man must have been a Cyclops!

Could I be right? Could everything Mr. Brunner been teaching us is real?

"_What you learn from me is vitally important_."

"Chloe? Chloe!" Katherine shouted pulling me out my thoughts. "Where you even listening to anything I just told you?"

I blinked.

"What? Oh, no sorry. I dozed off a little." I lied.

She huffed in annoyance. "If you don't want my help, just say so! I've got other test to study for, ones you won't even try to study."

"What? No I do want your help, and I'm thankful for you helping me, it's just late and I'm getting tired." That wasn't a complete lie. It was late and I was starting to get tired but that was not why I stopped listening to her.

"You are right, it is getting late. I'm going to stay up for little longer." Katherine told me pulling out her English notes.

"Okay, have fun studying." I said getting ready for bed.

I didn't know for sure if this stuff was real, but too much evidence pointed out it was.

The next afternoon, I found myself staring frustratingly at my three-hour Latin exam.

Percy was done before I was but just as he left Mr. Brunner called him back.

"Percy," he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... it's for the best."

His tone was kind, but the words still would embarrass anyone. Even though he was speaking quietly, we, the other kids finishing the test, could hear. Nancy Bobofit, sat in front of me, and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

I glared at the back of her head and kicked her chair. She growled and turned around in her seat to glare at me. I gave her my ultra-your-dead-later glare. She growled again before turning back around.

I'm so going to punch you before I leave, I promised in my mind. Just you wait Nancy.

Percy mumbled, "Okay, sir."

"I mean ..." Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you or for your sister. It was only a matter of time."

Ouch. Here was our favorite teacher who up to this point has belied in us, now is saying we were destined to be kicked out.

Percy must have said something too low for us to hear because Mr. Brunner continued. "No, no. Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... you're not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be—"

"Thanks," Percy blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me."

"Percy—"

But he was already gone.

I gave my test one last glance—it still wasn't completed—before stand up to turn it in. Without a word I headed for the door.

Mr. Brunner called me over to his desk.

I turned my hand still on the door handle. "Sir, whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it. You've said enough already."

With that I walked out slamming the door harder then I meant to.

On the last day of term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.

All throughout the hall you can hear the other girls talking about their summer plans and making promises to meet up during the summer to hang out. One girl was going to Hawaii for a month. Another was said her parents promised her a shopping spring. One said they were going to rent a house in the Caribbean for the summer. All them were juvenile delinquents, like myself, but the difference between me and them: they were _rich_ juvenile delinquents. Their mommies and daddies were high up lawyers, ambassadors, owners of big corporations, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

"Promise to hang out this summer?" Katherine asked as she too packed. Katherine also lived in New York, but on the other side of town, so we could meet up at some point and just walk around the town.

"Of course. If I got time though," I told her. She know I don't come a rich family like her but she never once judged. I told her about how I would have to get a summer job, so any free time I got would few and far in between. But we promised to write letters whenever we get the chance.

Katherine and I said our tearful good byes and promise to stay in contact.

Just was I was leave the school with Percy and Grover, he had booked the same Greyhound bus with us so we were in the same van that would drive us to the bus station, I saw Nancy standing by herself off to the side.

I smirked.

"Hey Nancy!" I called out jugging up to her.

"What?" She growled.

"I just wanted to give you a good-bye present," I said innocently. Before she could respond, I pulled my fist back and punched her. I heard a satisfying crunch for her nose breaking. I was sure I had broken some of my knuckles but didn't care. I've been waiting to punch her so long now.

She screamed, in anger and probably in pain, as blood flooded out her nose.

"Bye!" I called out running off. Thankful the driver of the van hadn't seen what happen but Percy and Grover had. They stared in awe and shock.

"Close your mouths boys," I told them. They laughed and shook their heads.

We were now on our way into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen.

Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

I was about to ask him why he was nervous when Percy said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat. "Wha—what do you mean?"

Percy then confessed about eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner on the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you hear?"

"Oh ... not much. What's the summer solstice dead-line?"

He winced. "Look, Percy ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers …"

"Grover—"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you both were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ..."

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you need me this summer."

I looked over Percy shoulder to read the card but it was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I out something like:

_Grover Underwood_

_Keeper_

_Half-Blood Hill_

_Long Island, New York_

_(800) 009-0009_

"What's Half—" I started to ask.

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... summer address."

I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.

"Okay," Per said glumly. "So, like, if I want to come visit your mansion."

He nodded. "Or...or if you need me."

"Why would I need you?"

I elbowed Percy in the ribs. That comment was unnecessary.

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, Chloe, the truth is, I—I kind of have to protect you."

We stared at him.

"Grover," I said, "What exactly are you protecting us from?"

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs.

The driver cursed and steered the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine compartment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road—no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from passing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of blood red cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no customers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them, an electric-blue one. The lady on the left knitted the other, a sea-green one. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue and sea-green yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at me.

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" Percy said. "Hey, man—"

"Tell me they're not looking at you. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

"Not funny, Chloe. Not funny at all."

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors—gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears.

I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus," he told us. "Come on."

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there."

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but Percy and I stayed back.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching me. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic.

Her two friends balled up the electric-blue and sea-green socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for—Sasquatch or Godzilla.

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu. Percy looked to be feeling the same.

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

I turned to Grover.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling us?"

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "Chloe, Percy what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?" Percy said.

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost—older.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord."

"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"This is not happening," Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time."

"What last time?" I demanded.

"Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth."

"Grover," I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Let me walk you home from the bus station. Promise me."

This seemed like a strange request to me, but I promised he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" Percy asked.

No answer.

"Grover—that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?" I demanded.

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.

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	3. Chapter 3

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* * *

As soon as we got to the bus terminal Grover ran to the bathroom. Once he was out of sight Percy and I grabbed the nearest taxi.

"East One-hundred-and-fourth and First," I told the driver.

That was where Percy and I lived with our mother, Sally Jackson, and evil step-dad, Gabe Ugliano.

Our mother is the best person on the planet and I missed her so much. She has a way about her that lights up a room and can make everything feel okay again. She is also the smartest person I've meet, and her dreams are to be a novelist. I once told her that if she wrote her stories and got them published we would be able to get rid of Gabe and live a better life. She just smiled and told me that one day I would understand why Gabe was around.

I was only nine at the time so I didn't understand what she was talking about but I knew one day I would find the answer.

The closer we got to the apartment the more I dreaded seeing our step-father.

Gabe is the world's #1 jerk. That was the only way I could describe him. All he would do is play poker, drink beer, boss us around, and rarely went into work.

When we got home Gabe was in the middle of a poker game with his buddies with ESPN playing in the back ground and chips and beer litter the floor. If the smell of cheap stale beer wasn't nauseous enough the air was filled with cigar smoke mixed with moldy garlic pizza and old sweaty gym shorts.

I hated it here.

I left Percy in the living room with Gabe, who just asked if my brother had any money, and went to Percy and I's 'room'. The room consisted of a twin size bed in the corner, a small desk, and a small dresser against the wall. Littered around the room was Gabe's nasty boots and old car magazine. Gabe calls it his 'study' while we are gone at school but that was just an excuse to mess up the room.

I heard Gabe shout, "Yours and your sister's report cards came in! I wouldn't act so snooty!"

A second later Percy walked in slamming the door behind him.

Percy sat on the bed, deep in thought. I got to work cleaning up the room like always. I put the boots in the closet and the magazines in the desk.

I didn't stop until I heard my mom's voice. "Percy? Chloe?"

She opened our bedroom door and I rushed to hug her.

"Mom," I muttered hugging her tight bearing my face into her shoulder.

"Oh, Chloe," She hugged me just as tight. She open her other arm and said, "Come here Percy."

Percy hopped off the bed and joined the hug.

"Your both have grown since Christmas! Now tell me everything you didn't put in your letters."

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally—how about some bean dip, huh?"

We ignored him. Percy and I attacked the "free samples" mom had gotten from work at the candy shop in Grand Central, and told her about our last days Yancey. Over all I truly did like Yancy Academy, it was different than any other school we been too. That was because our teacher turned into a monster, that shouldn't exist. I so badly wanted to tell her that and about the Greek Mythology stuff but I was scared to. Even though my mom has always had a way of making unnatural things seem normal, the thought of it actually being real scared me into staying quite.

She knew I was hiding something but didn't push.

"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."

"Montauk?" Percy asked wide eyed.

"Three nights—same cabin."

"When?" We asked at the same time.

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

For the past two summers we haven't been to Montauk, the place where mom met Percy and I's dad, because Gabe claimed there wasn't enough money. If he didn't spend all our money on his stupid poker games we would have enough to take trips to Montauk. So for us to go on a trip to Montauk was exciting but at the same time I was worried Gabe would stop us.

The bedroom door slammed open, with Gabe standing in the door way. He growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe's eyes narrowed. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

My heart dropped. I should have known he wouldn't let us go.

"I knew it," Percy muttered glaring at the floor. "He won't let us go."

"Of course he will," my mom said calmly. "Your step father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

I brighten up a bit. Mom uses the saying _the way to a man's heart is through his stomach_ consistently with Gabe. But in our case it wasn't his heart it was his money.

Gabe softened a bit at the thought of the food. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Yes, honey," mom said.

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful."

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kids apologize for interrupting my poker game."

_Sure_, I thought, _just after I drown you in the Huston River_.

"I'm sorry," Percy muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."

Gabe's eyes narrowed at us.

"Yeah, whatever," he grunted leaving to go back to his poker game.

"Thank you, Percy, Chloe," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

For a second anxiety shown in her eyes—the same fear I'd seen in Grover's eyes during the bus ride. But as soon as the anxiety came it was hidden when her smile returned.

It took mom an hour to make Gabe's seven-layer dip and to pack her clothes. Gabe kept complaining about not having his '78 Camaro and mom's cooking for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car, brats," he warned Percy and me as we loaded the bags into the car. "Not one little scratch."

He made it sound like we will be the ones driving. We were only twelve. There was no way Percy and I could drive.

I got in the Camaro wanting to leave already. Mom got in the driver seat and we waited for Percy. I watched as Percy made this weird hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus. It was looked like a clawed hand over his heart; I think it was a warding-off-evil gesture, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair case as if he'd been shot from a cannon.

I laughed. Percy jumped in the car next to me and told mom to step on it.

She just shook her head and drove off.

Our rental cabin was way out at the tip of Long Island on the south shore. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

It was the best place in the world.

As we got closer to Montauk years of worry and stress from work disappeared from mom's face, making her look younger. Her eyes also turned sea green.

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. We walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought home from work.

When the sun was completely set we made a fire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told us stories of when she was a kid and about the books she wanted to write someday. One story she wants to write was a tragic love story about a young newlywed couple where they get in an extremely bad car accident and loses the past ten years their memories, which was how long they knew each other, from bad brain damage. All the couple knew was that they cared deeply for each other, but didn't know why. So with help from family and friends the couple slowly learns about their past, how they meet and how they fell in love.

Eventually Percy asked mom about or father. Every time we come to Montauk that topic comes up at some point. Mom got teary eyed. I figured she would tell us the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them. I knew Percy never got tired of hearing it either.

"He was kind, Chloe, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You both have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you both. He would be so proud."

I doubt that was true. Percy and I were nothing but two dyslexic, hyperactive twins with a D+ report card, who got kicked out of every school we step foot into. What kind of father would be proud of that?

"How old were we?" Percy asked. "I mean ... when he left?"

She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But... he knew us as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, at the time we didn't know it were twins, but he never saw you both. He had to leave before you were born."

I had always imagined he knew us as babies because I seemed to remember his smile; A warm glow of a smile. Now to be told that he'd never meet us… to be told that memory was nothing but an imagination…

I was angry.

Our father had appended us. He left mom as a single mother of twins, making minimal wage, and no high school diploma. He should have married her, paid for her night classes, and college but no, he left, and we were stuck being dirt floor poor with Gabe.

"Are you going to send us away again? To another boarding school?" I asked looking for a blue jelly bean out of the candy bag.

She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want us around?"

"Percy!" I shouted in shock. How dare he say that to mom!

Our mom's eyes welled with tears. She took Percy hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I—I have to, honey. It's for both of your own good. I have to send you both away."

Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said—that it was best for us to leave Yancy.

"Because we're not normal," I said.

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Chloe. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe."

"Safe from what?" Percy asked.

I knew in that moment I should have told her about Mrs. Dodds turning into a Fury at the art museum, the ladies from the fruit stand cutting those strings. But I couldn't. I didn't want to ruin our trip.

"I've tried to keep you both as close to me as I could," my mom said. "They told me that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Chloe, Percy—the place your father wanted to send you. And I just... I just can't stand to do it."

"My father wanted me to go to a special school?" Percy asked

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."

A summer camp?

Is she serious? Our father left knowing mom was expecting but still manage to talk to mom about a _summer camp_?

"I'm sorry," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. I—I couldn't send either of you to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..." I tailed off seeing the look on mom's face. I knew that if I pushed the subject she would start to cry, and I didn't want that to happen.

That night I had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, and two beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf.

The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

Not too far away from where I stood, was Percy trying to run towards them, but he seemed to be moving in slow motion. I try to run towards Percy, trying to stop him from getting into the fight, knowing if he did he could die, but I too was moving to slow.

I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes.

I woke with a start.

Next to me Percy was also sitting up wide awake. Did we both have the same dream?

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

With the next thunderclap, I flinched and my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the weather has been acting very weird lately, so I wasn't surprised there was a hurricane. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice—someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.

My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you thinking?"

My mother looked at Percy and I in terror—not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Percy, Chloe" she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

I stared in shock. Grover had just cured in Ancient Greek and I understood him perfectly. How is that possible?

Percy stared at Grover his moth hanging open. I was sure my expression was the same. I didn't care how he had gotten here in the middle of night all I cared about was why Grover has no pants on and where his legs should be… No this shouldn't be possible.

My mom looked at Percy and I sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Chloe. Tell me _now_!"

Somehow I manage to tell her a short version of Mrs. Dodds and the old ladies at the fruit stands. Mom stared at me, deathly pale.

She grabbed her purse, tossed Percy and I our rain jackets, and said, "Get to the car. All of you. _Go_!"

Grover ran for the Camaro—but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.

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	4. Chapter 4

**I'm not going to lie; I'm disappointed in the lack of reviews. I'm not going to demand x amount of reviews before I do updates (it would be very hypocritical of me to since I **_**hate**_** it when people do that) but seriously guys talk to me! I need to know if you like the story and how you feel I should do to make it better. I'm not an experience or confident writer so I need that comfort to know you are enjoying my writing. The only way for you to do that is to review the chapters or PM me.**

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**I do not own Percy Jackson series. None of it.**

* * *

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind and rain slammed against the Camaro. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, I would flinch and looked over to Grover who sat in the back seat with Percy. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

"So, you and my mom... know each other?" Percy said breaking the silence.

"Not exactly," he responded. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she knew I was watching you and Chloe."

"Watching us?"

"Keeping tabs on you. Making sure you were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Urm ... what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, my best friend is a donkey—"

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" Grover cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

Goat. Grover is half-boy, half-goat. But… That would mean…

"You're a Satyr!" I shouted turning so I could see Grover. He nodded. "Everything Mr. Brunner taught us really is true, isn't it? Was Mrs. Dodds really a Fury—"

"Don't say the name!" My mom and Grover shouted.

"If you must talk about Mrs. Dodds say Kindly One!" Grover shouted.

"How long have you known Chloe?" My mom asked.

"Since the day before our Latin exam." I told her.

"Whoa. Wait. You knew but didn't say anything?" Percy shouted.

"I didn't know for sure." I said, "I didn't say anything in case I wrong and you guys would think I was crazy. I mean seriously! If you someone told you all those myths you learn are not myths but real life, wouldn't you think they were crazy? If you started to think that they could possibly be true, wouldn't you feel like the crazy person?"

"Chloe, you should have told us as soon as you figured it out." My mom scrolled.

"The more you know the more monsters you attract," Grover explained.

"Who I—wait a minute, what do you mean?" Percy said still lost.

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"Percy, Chloe," my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you two to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after us?" Percy asked.

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for Percy's and I's sake not to be scared. "The place your father wanted to send you."

"The place you didn't want us to go."

"Please, dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger."

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means—the fact they appeared in front of you? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."

"Whoa. You said 'you.'" Percy cut in.

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in Chloe and me."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Boys!" my mom said.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid—a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" I asked my voice shaking a little.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness—the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. There was a blinding flash and deafening _boom!_.

My vision went black.

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**I'm extremely sorry for the short chapter. It was going to be longer but then I was thinking, "What if this happens... or this… oh that would be a good idea…" and now I can't decide what I should do.**

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	5. Chapter 5

**A **_**HUGE**_** thank you for all my wonderful readers! A **_**BIG**_** thanks also for those who voted on the poll!**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson series.  
**

* * *

I woke up a few times but every time I did it was for only a minute or so before I blacked out again. The first time I awaken there was a half-man, who looked a lot like Mr. Brunner but his lower half was a white horse. The centaur man was talking to another man, who had dozens of eyes on his body. When they saw I was awake the centaur man turned to me and said something but I couldn't hear what he said and passed out again.

The next time I woke, it was dark and I couldn't see anything in the darkness. Finial time I woke, the many eye man was standing in the corner was the only other person in the room. The many eye man left the room and came back a minute later with a familiar man in a wheelchair. I sat up.

"How are you feeling Chloe?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Head hurts a little but other than that, fine," I replied.

Mr. Brunner nodded in understanding. "Head injuries are always the trickiest to heal. I'm afraid we can't give you anymore ambrosia or nectar."

I didn't know what that stuff was, probably some kind of medicine, but I didn't feel like asking.

"Where's Percy?" I asked.

"I believe he has sword training with Luke right now. He will be glad to see you are awake. He's been quite worried about you."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"A week. We were really concerned about possible permanent damage if you didn't wake soon."

"Mr. Brunner—"

"Please call me Chiron. I'm afraid Mr. Brunner was a pseudonym. "

"Chiron?" ex-Mr. Brunner nodded. "As in the centaur Chiron?"

"The very one."

"So that one time I woke up and saw a centaur that looked like the Mr. Brunner you but part horse was really you?"

Chiron nodded. "It's a good sign that you remember that. Although I would have prefer you would have woken up earlier then last night."

"Sir back at the museum, when you said we had to learn about how the Greek Mythology played a part in our day to day lives, this is what you meant. You were trying to tell us that is real, weren't you?" I asked.

"I was." Chiron agreed, "Percy told me you figured it out before your arrival here. How long had you known?"

"The night before the Latin exam is when I started to really believe it was real," I told him. "I saw a picture of the Kindly Ones in the text book and realized that was what Mrs. Dodds was."

I expected him to get angry at me for not saying anything but he dropped the subject by saying, "Let's go outside, you need some fresh air. We can talk more out on the porch. There is much to explain to you before I give you a quick tour of camp and find your brother."

I nodded and swung my legs out of bed. When I stood up I was a little wobbly but kept my balance. I followed Chiron out of the house and on to a porch.

I gasped.

A valley lay out below us that marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there the landscape was dotted with buildings styled with ancient Greek architecture: an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena; except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the lowering sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, some of their horses had wings.

All I could think was: This wasn't an ordinary summer-camp.

"Take a sit Chloe," Chiron said gesturing to a table that was off to the right on the porch.

I sat down.

"I must say you are your brother's arrival have caused quite a stir."

"Why?"

"Chloe, do you know who your father is?" Chiron asked.

I shook my head. "No sir. The only thing my mother said about my father was that he is lost at sea. Why?"

"Your mother was a smart woman. Saying your father is lost at sea isn't a lie but not the complete truth either." Chiron said. "Your father isn't _lost at sea_ because he is the god of the sea."

"My father is Poseidon?" I asked shocked.

Chiron nodded, "Just last night during our usual Friday night game of Capture the Flag Poseidon claimed your brother and yourself as his children. You are Chloe Jackson daughter of the Sea God."

I looked out at the water in the horizon. I wanted to believe that this was some kind of sick joke, but I couldn't make myself believe that. There was too much evidence to pointing out the truth. Finding out that Poseidon has explained why I always felt better near or in water. Why when Percy and I went to the aquarium on a school trip that we could understand the fish and sharks in the tanks. It proved that Percy had, unknowingly, welding the water of the fountain to pulled Nancy Bobofit in back on that trip to the museum

"You said my brother and I arrival has caused problems and then asked if I knew my father," I said turning back to Chiron, "What does my father have anything to do with us being at camp? I mean in the stories the gods had thousands of children. Why are Percy and I any different?"

Chiron was quite for a moment, as if he was choosing his words carefully. "To put it simply: You shouldn't be alive."

"Why is that?"

"Chloe, half-blood children of the Big Three are stronger than any other demigods. Sixty years ago, after World War II, which was Zeus's and Poseidon's sons verse Hades's sons, the Big Three swore on the River Styx to never have any more demigods. Only Hades has kept that oath so far though. Seventeen years ago Zeus was the first to break the oath. He had a daughter named Thalia.

"Five years ago when Hades found out that Zeus had Thalia, Hades was extremely angry. He sent his worst monsters from the underworld after Thalia and the two demigods and satyr that was with her. They were on their way here to camp, almost made it, but at the last minute Thalia sacrifice herself to the monsters to save her friends. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill that leads into camp is called Half-Blood Hill."

"That's horrible! Thalia was innocent!" I exclaimed, shocked about what I was hearing, "Why punish the girl when it was Zeus's fault in the first place for breaking the oath?"

Thunder rumbled. I looked at the sky and saw it was cloudless.

Chiron shrugged, "Zeus got off easy because he is immortal but his actions brought down terrible fate for his daughter."

"What you really mean is Zeus just got yelled at by his brothers knowing that they couldn't do anything else because he is the King of the gods and immortal, so they took it out on the one person they can: Thalia."

Cloudless thunder rumbled again. This time it shook the windows of the house. Down below in the valley campers paused what they were doing and looked at the sky also. Chiron too looked nervously at the sky.

"Chloe, it would be very unwise to talk about the gods like that," Chiron warned.

"But you can't punish someone for their parent's actions!" I said really angry. No one gets to choose who their parents are, so why put the blame on the kids for being born? With logic like that Big Three should be punished because their father was Kronos.

"I agree, but when dealing with immortals like the gods mortal's principles and morals are thrown out the window."

"That doesn't make it right," I grumbled.

"It's not but you need to remember that if you want to live. By clamming you and Percy as his children, Poseidon has put himself, and you and Percy both, in a dangerous potion. To prevent the same fate as Thalia, you and Percy will need to train harder than any of the other demigods here. Now on that note, we should head down to the dinning pavilion. It is almost dinner time."

I nodded and stood up.

Chiron shifted in his wheel chair like he was going to get up. He did rise from his wheelchair. It turns out the wheelchair was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.

Well. There puts the horse in centaur.

"Much better," Chiron said, "Now, come, Chloe Jackson. Your brother is anxious to see you and you must be hungry."

Chiron led me down the hill.

We past the now empty volleyball bit. As we walked past the strawberry fields Chiron explained they were easy to grow because our camp director was Dionysus, but goes by Mr. D, and plats grow like crazy when he is around. They also sell the berries to restaurants and Mount Olympus to pay for the camp's expenses.

As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"

"You'll see. We just had Capture the Flag yesterday but next Friday we will have it again, so you might have your chance to play then."

When we passed the cabins Chiron slowed down a little to let me see them. There were twelve of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with two at the base and five in a row on either side. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops.

Each building was defiantly unique in their own ways. Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Twelve cabins for the twelve Olympians.

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined fire pit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick. She saw me and smiled. I smiled back and gave her a small wave. The little girl looked startled but waved back anyways.

"Come along Chloe there's the mess hall." Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion framed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables covered with white cloth trimmed in purple. Each table, with the exception a few, were filled with the other campers, satyrs, wood nymphs and naiads.

As we walked up the hill everyone got quite.

The silence was broken by a loud yell.

"Chloe!"

Percy, who was sitting by his self, jumped up and gave me a bone crushing hug.

"Percy… Let go… air..." I gasped out.

"Oh sorry!" Percy said letting me out of his death grip. "I've been really worried about you, Chloe."

"So I've been told," I said once air was back in my lungs.

"Let's go sit down." Percy pulled me over to the table he once sat at. I could feel everyone's gazes on us but I tried my best to ignore them.

Once we were seated, Chiron broke the silence by raising his glass saying, "To the gods."

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and, barbecue. I looked at my glass and saw it was empty, but Percy said, "Speak to it. Like this."

"Blue Cherry Coke." Percy glass filled with sparkling cobalt soda.

I smiled and repeated the same thing to me glass.

I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion.

"We burn offerings for the gods." Percy muttered to me as he led us to the fire. We were the first table to give offerings.

Percy approached the fire and tossed in a chunk of gussy brisket. "Poseidon."

I was next.

I tossed a buttery roll. "Poseidon."

When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.

It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.

"So what have you been up to for the past week while I was in a coma," I asked while we ate. Most of the camp had gotten over their starring and started talking again but I still saw some sneak glances at Percy and me.

"Let's just say there hasn't been a dull moment until today." Percy said

"Why?"

"On my first day after waking up, I woke up on and off for two days, this girl Clarisse from Ares cabin tried to dunk my head in the toilet but I accidently made the pips on the bathroom explode blasting her and her friends with toilet water."

I laughed. "How did you do that?"

Percy shrugged, "I don't know. All I knew was I did not want my head in the toilet and the next thing I knew the pluming exploded."

"So how was Capture the Flag? I heard you, and effectively me, got claimed then. How was that like?"

Percy stiffened liked I brought up a bad subject.

"What? What happened?" I asked worried.

"During the game nothing major happen," Percy paused, studied the food left on his plate for a moment, "it was after the game when we were celebrating our win when things get rough."

"What do you mean?"

Percy sighed, "A hellhound was in the forest and attacked. Chiron and dozen other campers that had bows and arrows shoot it dead quickly, but it got me bad. I'm fine now," he added seeing my look, "Once I stepped in the creak that was nearby, the water healed me. That was when I was claimed."

"How were you claimed?" I asked wanting to change topics off the fact my brother almost became ground beef.

"A hologram of a green trident glowed over my head for a few seconds." Percy explained.

"That must have been a sight to see."

Percy shrugged, pushing a grape around on his plate. Chiron stomped on the floor, imminently silencing the pavilion.

A cubby man in a tiger striped shirt gave a deep sigh and stood up. "I guess I should congratulate the blue team on your win last night." The table full of blond hair and grey eyes kids, an over flowing table of trouble looking kids, and a table of athletic type kids with blue eyes and sandy blond hair cheered. "Yea, yea good job you brats. You manage to not to kill anyone. I personally would have had let sea boy be eaten by the hellhound."

Very loud thunder boomed over our heads. It was so loud that it shook the tables. All the campers glances at the sky nervously.

"Blah, blah, blah. I guess I'm obligated to introduce you to sea boy twin sister, Charisa Johnson."

Chiron muttered something.

"Oh, my bad. It's Chloe Jackson. Now, run along to your silly campfire you brats."

Percy and I followed everyone to the amphitheater. On the way there Percy explained to me that after dinner every night the whole camp goes to the amphitheater for sing-along lead by the Apollo cabin.

The amphitheater steps were carved into the side of a hill, facing a stone-lined fire pit. Fifty or sixty kids filled the rows, clustered into groups under various banners.

The sing along was nothing I'd ever seen before. Everyone was dancing and singing along to songs that were something about how their grandma dresses for war or something strange like that. Those camp songs were extremely embarrassing, but in the dark everyone got away with it.

But Percy and I didn't participate. We sat in the back where no one paid any attention to us. We still had a lot to talk about.

"Who was that man that made the announcements when dinner was done?" I asked Percy, keeping my voice just high enough for him to hear me but not shouting over the noise of the other campers singing fire.

"That was the camp director, Mr. D," Percy said. "Don't get on his bad side."

"Wait, _that_ was Dionysus?" I asked shocked.

Percy nodded. "Yeah, I had the same reaction."

"He seems… _cheerful_…"

Percy chuckled. "He hates it here so he feels it is his job to make everyone else's lives unpleasant also."

"Lovely," I muttered.

Percy and I sat in silence for several moments. The campers had switch to a different song, I don't know what this one was about seeing how I had missed over half of it from talking to Percy.

"Percy?"

"Humm?"

"What happen to mom?"

That question had been nagging at me ever since I had woken up. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that something had happen to our mother.

Percy tensed up next to me. "Chloe…" Percy looked at me with sad eyes. "She's… she's dead Chloe…"

I gasped. No. No she can't be. My mom can't be dead. She and Percy are all that I have left in the world.

"How?" I whispered, biting my tongue to keep the tears from falling.

Percy stared at the fire below. In the glow of the flames I saw he too was trying not to cry. Our mom meant the world to us. She is the only reason we hadn't ran away when Gabe came into our lives.

"She died as we were making the way up the hill to camp. It was hard for me and her to get both you and Grover up the hill. The monster that was chasing us got a hold of mom and she…" Percy started to get chocked up. He didn't need to finish. I knew the monster had killed her.

A tear fell.

Then another.

And Another.

Percy pulled me into a tight embrace. I silently cried on his shoulders.

"It's my fault she is dead," I cried.

"What?" Percy exclaimed, "No! No its not! Don't think like that Chloe!"

"It's true! If I wasn't unconscious then I could have help you kill the monster and mom wouldn't have died!"

"Chloe, your skull had split open. That wasn't your fault! If anyone's blame Zeus for hitting our car with lighting!"

Thunder rumbled overhead. Some campers stopped their singing and glanced at the sky.

I knew my brother was telling the truth, but I just couldn't help feel responsible for our mother's death.

"The underworld is real… We could get her back…" Percy muttered to me.

I pulled my head away from his shoulder. His eyes were filled with tears also. But he held his back knowing one of us has to stay strong. I was thankful for that. If my brother started crying also neither of us would be able to stop.

"No." I shook my head. "Mom wouldn't want us to risk our lives for her like that. Besides in the stories the demigods who do survive a trip into the underworld never leave with someone who is dead."

"Don't you want her back?" Percy asked shock.

"Of course. But like I said, mom wouldn't want us to do that."

We sat in silence for the rest of the camp fire.

When it was over we went to our new home in camp three. The outer walls of the cabin were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. Inside was empty except for the six bunk beds and chests at the foot of each bunk. The salty scent of the interior reminded me of Montauk.

Percy gave me his spare shirt to wear. It was a little baggy on me but it served well as a night shirt.

"Good night Percy." I said crawling into my bunk which was next to his.

"Good night Chloe."

That night I had a dream, no a nightmare.

I stood approximately 20 feet away from a dark pit. I didn't need to know what was in there to think that everything that was in there must stay there. The pit had an aura of pure evil.

"_Help me raise Chloe_," a deep evil voice called out from the pit. That voice was so evil it my blood turn to ice. "_Come down and help_."

All around me the dead were shouting for me to run, some wanted me to wake up, some said to do both. I tried to turn and run but it was like I was frozen. I couldn't move.

"_The gods need to be punished for their deeds, don't you think_?" The voice cooed. "_They shouldn't get away with the crimes they commit. I could make sure that they get what they deserve. I need your help to get out of here first though_."

The gods need to learn not to abuse their immortal powers… They can get away with putting the blame on mortals for their actions… They need to pay the price for their behavior…

I shook my head startled my own thoughts. Where did those thoughts come from?

The thing in the pit chuckled as if it was amused. "_Those thoughts have been there. I'm just bringing then forward_."

No. No they were. I was angry at the gods for what happen to Thalia but that was it. Just angry. What that thing was making me think was just plain wrong. It was evil.

As my dream faded away I heard it laugh, "_Until we meet again Chloe Jackson_."

I sat up gasping. I was cover in cold sweat and shacking like a leaf in the middle of a tornado. The deep evil laughter still ranged in my ears.

I looked over at Percy's bunk and saw he was fast asleep. The clock on the wall showed it was 2 in the morning. Still several hours before we had to get up.

I laid back down praying to any god that would listen for me not of have any more dreams.

Thankfully someone must have heard my pleads for I had dreamless sleep for the rest of the night.

* * *

**YAY! The chapter is done!**

**Sorry it took so long but I wanted this chapter to be perfect because it really starts the fork in the road between Percy's and Chloe's paths.**

**I apologize if anyone is out of character. If you feel someone is, please tell me in a review or PM about how the character is out of character and how I could make sure that won't happen in future chapters.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hope everyone enjoys this chapter!**

**Declaimer: Like always I do not own Percy Jackson series.**

* * *

Over the next several days I fell into a miserable daily routine. Annabeth, a daughter of Athena, taught Percy and I Greek in the mornings. But I knew she didn't want too. Every time we ask a question she would glare at us. After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest … Poseidon? … Dirty rotten … Got to make a plan …" Something was seriously messed up in her head.

All the other campers also kept their distance, although the Ares campers would shoot us venomous looks when we walk by. Their looks made it clear they wanted to kill us. I wish they would start a fight already. I rather get in a fight everyday then be treated like I had the plague.

The only other person besides Chiron who didn't turn and run in the opposite direction was Luke from cabin eleven. Luke had been teaching Percy sward fighting for the past couple days. He gladly let be join their one-on-one sessions. Luke pushed us harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise us up in the process.

"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper-beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."

A few hours later I had nothing to do during my free time before dinner. Percy was off hanging out with Grover or something. So I decided to just explore the camp a little while. When I walked past I saw some of the Demeter cabin still tending to the strawberries fields. I hadn't spoken to any of them but there was one familiar face that I knew.

"Katherine?" I called out, hoping I wasn't mistaking my best friend from Yancy Academy with someone else.

The girl who I thought was Katherine looked up. She gave me a small smile and walked over the edge of the fields where I was standing. "Oh hey Chloe," Katherine said brushing some dirt off her hands.

"You—here—why didn't you tell me?" I manage to say through my shock.

Katherine sighed, "When I got to Yancy and saw a stayer, Grover, there I didn't think much of it. Stayers are I practically every school in America looking for demigods. When Chiron, Mr. Burner, showed up a few weeks later I knew something was off. I confronted Chiron one night and he told me Grover had found two possible demigods that needed little extra attention. At the time I didn't know he meant you and Percy. After a while I soon realized that you and Percy were both demigods, obviously you didn't though. When we were studying for the Latin exam I knew that you possible had figured out that the myths we learned in class was real. I so badly wanted to tell you about all this," she gestured to the camp all around us, "I especially want to tell you when we were leave the school a few days later, but Chiron told me not to say anything. So I kept my mouth shut."

"But why hadn't I seen you these past few days since I came out of my coma?" I asked.

"I've been kinda been avoiding you. I just didn't know how to confront you about this. I thought you would be mad at me for keeping this a secret." She confessed.

"I'm not mad. I understand why you did it. Just tell me that that you avoiding me had nothing to do with who my father is."

"It isn't. I know you Chloe and I wouldn't ignore you like that just because you are child of one of the Big Three." Katherine looked so genuine that I knew she was telling the truth. Sharing a dorm room with someone for a year, you really learn a lot about that person.

"So how long have you been going here?" I asked changing the subject.

"This is only my second year." Katherine pulled out a leather necklace that has a clay bead hanging off of it. "You can tell how many summers someone had been here by the amount of bead they have. At the end of each summer every camper gets a bead with a deigned of the most memorable thing that happens that year."

A short little boy with the same black hair and brown eyes as Katherine nervously walked up. "Um… Katie, we need to go get washed up before dinner."

"Oh, yeah. Tell everyone I will be there in a seconds," Katherine said to her brother. He nodded and ran off, following a group of kids to where the cabins are.

"Since when do you go by Katie?" I asked.

"Everyone here calls me Katie for some reason. I can't even remember how it started." Katherine explained. "I think it had something to do with Mr. D getting my name wrong or something. Anyways, I need to get going."

"Ok, see ya around."

Later that night after dinner I knew someone really resented Percy and I when we went back to our cabin we found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The more I read the angrier I got, which made it harder to read.

_**MOTHER AND CHILDREN STILL MISSING AFTER**__**FREAK CAR ACCIDENT**_

_**BY EILEEN SMYTHE**_

_**Sally Jackson and her children, daughter Chloe and son Percy, are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.**_

_**Mother, daughter, and son had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circumstances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.**_

_**Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson and stepdaughter, Percy and Chloe Jackson, are troubled children who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.**_

_**Police would not say whether the children are suspect in their mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson, Chloe and Percy. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.**_

The phone number was circled in black marker.

Percy crumbled up the paper, threw it behind one of the bunks, and flopped down on his bed. I stoop up and turned off the lights.

Thankfully I had a dreamless sleep. For the past few days I hadn't had anymore dreams of the voice in the pit, which I was extremely grateful for. Something told me I should tell someone about that dream but I just couldn't. I didn't want to think about it.

I woke up the next morning to Percy shaking me.

"Come on get dress. Mr. D wants us at the Big House." Percy said grabbing his cloths. I sighed and grabbed mine and went into the bathroom to change while Percy changed out there.

We followed Grover, who was waiting outside for us, up to the Big House. Ever since I had woken up out of my coma I had expected to be called up to the Big House to hear what the punishment that the gods had come up with for us for being born. I figured they had spent the past days debating what to do now that Poseidon has two demigod kids. Now Mr. D was going to deliver the verdict.

Over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. Percy asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.

"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."

"What the heck is that, then?" I asked pointing up at the storm over our heads.

He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."

I realized he was right. In the few days I had been awake; it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.

But this storm … this one was huge.

At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Some Ares brats were walking around bulling all the younger campers. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.

Grover, Percy, and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheelchair. They were playing against invisible opponents–two sets of cards hovering in the air.

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrities."

Percy and I stayed silent.

"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to bow to you, mortals, just because old Barnacle-Beard is your father."

A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house.

"Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.

Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.

"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.

"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "Brats wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you both into a dolphins instead, sending you back to your father."

"Mr. D-" Chiron warned.

"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If the brats are still here when I get back, I'll turn them into an Atlantic bottlenose. Do you understand? And Perseus and Chloe Jackson, if you're at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A security pass.

He snapped his fingers. The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, and then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.

Chiron smiled at us, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Chloe, Percy, please. And Grover."

We did.

Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.

"Tell me, Percy," he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

Just hearing the name made me shudder. Hearing that one of those things had attacked my brother made shudder even more.

"It scared me," Percy confessed. "If you hadn't shot it, I'd be dead."

"You'll meet worse, Percy. You too Chloe. Far worse, before you're done."

"Done … with what?" I asked confused.

"Your quest, of course," Chiron said it like it was the most obviously thing in the world, "Will you accept it?"

"Um, sir," Percy said, "you haven't told me what it is yet."

Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus, they're fighting over something valuable … something that was stolen, aren't they?" Percy said.

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.

Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"

Percy explained. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And … I've also been having these dreams."

"I knew it," Grover said.

"Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.

"But it is their quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

I laughed nervously. "A what?"

"Do not take this lightly, Chloe," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."

"Oh."

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other lightning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And it's missing?"

"Stolen," Chiron said.

"By who?" Percy asked.

"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you two."

Percy and I mouths fell open.

"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' Air disasters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly-that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"But we didn't-" Percy tried to cut in.

"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son and daughter. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

"But I've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!" I shouted letting my anger getting the best of me.

Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.

"Er, Chloe …?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam…." He looked at me as if he actually expected us to remember question thirty-eight. I don't even think I made it that far into the test before I walked out of there.

How could anyone accuse Percy and me of stealing a god's weapon? We couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted.

Chiron was waiting for an answer.

"Something about a golden net?" Percy guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods … they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"

"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon since. Of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt. He took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threatening war. And now, you've come along-the proverbial last straw."

"But we're just a kids!" I exclaimed.

"Chloe," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he's fathered a new mortal hero who might be used as a weapon against you…. Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"

"But we didn't do anything," Percy said, "Poseidon-our dad-he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"

Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"

"Bad?" he guessed.

"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."

"Bad."

"And you two, Percy and Chloe Jackson, would be the first to feel Zeus's wrath."

It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky. We had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of us. I was furious. One look at Percy, told me he too was furious. Nothing makes Percy and I angrier then being blamed for something we didn't do. We had that happen all too often.

"So I have to find the stupid bolt and return it to Zeus," Percy said.

"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon return Zeus's property?"

"If Poseidon doesn't have it, where is the thing?" I asked.

"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago … well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"Why can't you tell us where the bolt is beforehand?" I asked.

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."

Percy frowned. "Good reason."

"You agree then?"

I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.

Easy for him. We were the one Zeus wanted to kill.

"All right," Percy said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."

"Then it's time you consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "One of you will need to go upstairs, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

Percy and I glanced at each other. "You should go Percy," I told him. "You have more experience dealing with fighting monsters and spent more time training then I have."

Percy nodded and left.

Grover started to noisily chew on a Diet Coke can. Chiron stayed quite, staring at the wall in front of him clearly lost in thought. Chiron clearly knew more then he lets on, I just wish he gave us more of a straight answer and not a cryptic message trying to understand what he was saying.

Several long minutes later Percy returned.

"Well?" Chiron pushed.

Percy slumped into his chair across from me. "She said I would retrieve what was stolen."

Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of the tin can. "That's great!"

"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."

"She ... she said I would go west and face a god who had turned. I would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned." Percy told us.

"I knew it," Grover said.

Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"

Percy shook his head. "No, that's about it."

It didn't take a genius to know that he was lying. There was no doubt in my mind that Chiron also knew my brother was lying. Chiron has taught demigods for thousands and thousands of years, so he seen every lie possible.

"Very well, Percy," Chiron said, "But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

"Okay," Percy said. "So where do I go? Who's this god in the west?"

"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron told him. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Somebody else who wants to take over?"

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

"Hades," I said remembering what Chiron told me about the oath the Big Three made.

Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."

A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"

"A Fury came after them," Chiron reminded him. "She watched the children until she was sure of their identity, then tried to kill him. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."

"Yes, but-but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy and Chloe are son and daughter of Poseidon…"

"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Punishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon will try to use Percy, and Chloe, to clear his name. Hades would very much like to kill these young half-bloods before they can take on the quest."

"Great," I heard Percy muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill us."

"But a quest to …" Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."

"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy and Chloe must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."

_Yes. Come to the underworld where I rest little girl_, the cold voice from my dream cooed in the back of my mind. I sat straight up eyes darting around the room, expecting for it to change and revile that I was standing in front of the pit. But the room never changed. I looked around at Percy, Grover, and Chiron. They clearly didn't hear the voice.

Percy had a determined look. He clearly was ready to take revenge at Hades for trying to kill him with a Fury, Minotaur, and hellhound. Percy also wanted to get mom back, so going to the underworld might let him succeed in that.

"Look, if we know it's Hades," Percy told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."

"Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades-and I imagine Poseidon does-they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"

"You're saying we're being used."

"I'm saying it's no accident Poseidon has claimed you two now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. He needs you."

My father needed us.

I didn't know what to think of that. After ingoing us for ten years he all of a sudden he expected us to jump to his aid. Anger and happiness spun around me like a whirlpool. I was glad he was recognizing us as his children but it comes with a price. But was I willing to pay that price?

"You've known we were Poseidon's children all along, haven't you?" I asked Chiron.

"I had my suspicions. As I said … I've spoken to the Oracle, too."

I got the feeling Chiron was holding back information about his prophecy, but I wasn't mad at him for it. It would be very hypocritical of me if I did because I too was holding back information.

"So let me get this straight," Percy said. "I'm supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check," Chiron said.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe." I added.

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days." Percy finished.

"That's about right."

Grover gulped down the ace of hearts.

"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.

"You don't have to go," Percy told him. "I can't ask that of you.

"Oh …" He shifted his hooves. "No … it's just that satyrs and underground places … well…" He took a deep breath, and then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, Percy. If … if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you down."

Percy looked so relieved he looked ready to cry. "All the way, G-man." Percy turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."

"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."

"Where?" I asked.

Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

"Oh," I said.

"So we just get on a plane-" Percy started to say.

"No!" I shrieked. "Percy how stupid can you be? We are the children of the Sea God, who is currently in a _huge_ fight with Zeus, Lord of the Sky. To get on a plane would grant us a one way ticket to the underworld the!"

Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed. I tried hard not to glance at the storm.

"Okay," Percy said, "So, we'll travel overland."

"That's right," Chiron said. "Two companions may accompany you. Chloe is second. And Grover is third."

"Great. So when do we—," Percy started to say.

"I'm not going the quest," I cut him off.

"What?" Percy, Grover, and Chiron voiced as one.

"Chloe," Chiron said slowly, "do you realize just how important this quest is right?"

"Yes, I do. But a gut feeling tells me not to go on this quest." I told him.

"But Chloe you have go!" Percy exclaimed. I tried not to flinch at the hurt in his eyes. He looked like I just betrayed him. It hurt to think that he felt like that. "I couldn't do without you!"

"Percy, yes you can," I told him calmly. "You have natural leadership and swordsmanship that I don't. I would just be hold you guys back. Take someone who can help you and make sure all of you come out of the underworld alive and with the lightning bolt."

"Do you have anyone in mind to take your place?" Chiron asked.

"As much as I hate to say it, Annabeth."

The air shimmered behind Chiron.

Annabeth became visible, stuffing her Yankees cap into her back pocket.

She said turned to me. "I should have known someone like you would be too weak for a quest like this." Annabeth said.

"Oh don't let your head get any bigger than it already is Wise Girl. It's about to explode." I shot back.

"I'm glad you can submit to someone who is smarter then you, Seaweed Brain."

"Seaweed Brain? How original. Do you always go around stealing other people's insults like that?"

"Look do you want me to help your brother or not?"

"To be honest not really but I also want my brother to stay in one piece, unless it's by my hands."

"You said it yourself, you know I'm far better off going on this quest then you are."

"The only reason I invited you is because I know you have more training. That's it. If my brother gets hurt in any way, it will be on you head. Got it?"

"Girls, now is not the time for this." Chiron turned to Percy. "Do you accept Annabeth as the third person for your quest?"

Percy glanced between Annabeth and I. A look of betray still in his eyes. "Yea, I guess I have no choice to."

"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.

"No time to waste," Chiron said. "You three should get packing."

* * *

**And that is the end of this chapter!**

**What do you think of the plot twist of Chloe not going on the quest? What do you think will happen at camp while Percy , Annabeth, and Grover are gone on the quest?**

**Also, as for Katie being Katherine all create goes to **_**Extended Experience**_**. It was her idea to have Katherine be Katie Gardner that way we can include Katherine character. So Katie/Katherine is 12 like Chloe and Percy. Katie is a nickname for Katherine that everyone at camp calls her by, except for Chloe. If anyone is confused or has any questions fill free to message me or put it in a review.**

**Hope everyone is doing well!**

**Thank you for reading! Pease review!**


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